Youth Wasted On Young
by Dodge-This
Summary: At the fall of Voldemort, his followers are returned to the age they were marked at. Will these new 7th years wreak havok on Hogwarts? Eventual SSHG
1. The Sorting

Chapter 1: Sorting

Authoress: Dodge-This

Based on idea by: PookaSeraph

Disclaimer: Don't own anything, all goes to Rowling and WB.

All that remained of the student body of Hogwarts was seated in the Great Hall as the new first years filed in, awe apparent on their faces. The normally crowded tables were now peppered with a fraction of the previous year's population. The new students looked on with mixed expressions as the sorting hat and stool were brought out.

The roll for first years was called and the new students were sorted without interruption except house cheering. As the last name was called Dumbledore stood to address the room.

"Before we feast, there is one more issue to concern ourselves with. As a result of the battle, there were a number of people who were magically returned to the age they received the dark mark." He paused. "And so, we shall continue with the sorting, but this time, they shall be entering their seventh year at Hogwarts." He waved a hand toward the door, which opened to admit a crowd of 17 year old students. "These soon to be students have lost their memory along with their years, behave in accordance."

The students filed in front of the sorting hat. It sat silently for a moment before bursting out loudly:

_"Although I knew you long ago,_

_I shall sort you based upon _

_what you now know."_

As the sorting hat settled back into silence Professor McGonagall walked forward with a new scroll. The list was run through as students listened on with fear. The sorting progressed much as the first years had. The majority of the 'new' students were sorted to Slytherin. There were a few that were sorted to Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, but none to Gryffindor. Those sorted to Slytherin were greeted with open arms as the others were shunned from their new table. There were a few gasps that ran the length of the hall as one name was called.

"Malfoy, Lucius," The boy left the crowd and sat on the stool.

The hat let out some sort of snort. "SLYTHERIN,"

All eyes followed him as he settled next to his son, they were very similar in manner, but Lucius chose to wear his hair at shoulder length and was a little shorter.

Hermione looked to Harry with fear in her eyes. The look was returned in the green orbs.

Much of the student body hadn't noticed, but the sorting had continued. They were quickly made their way through the alphabet. It had proceeded uninterrupted until another astounding name was called out.

"Snape, Severus," the Professor stopped reading to track the young man across the hall. It would be interesting to see how he adjusted. The boy shuffled to the front sitting on the stool.

"SLYTHERIN"

Hermione and Harry shared a look. She had informed Harry that Snape was returning to Hogwarts, they both wondered if he would be as big a prick as ever to Harry.

A few more names were called and eventually a Zabini was called. Some relative of Blaise they assumed.

At the end of the ceremony Professor Dumbledore stood at the head table and waited for the chatter to die down. "Due to the Final Battle fought over the summer, our numbers have been greatly reduced. Members of our staff, as well those of our student body were among the fallen. As a result of this, there are many new professors to introduce you to." He took his glasses and began polishing grime off the lenses. "Among the new professors are Bill and Charlie Weasley." A gasp ran down the Gryffindor table as the Weasleys rose and waved. Harry and Hermione smiled morosely at the additions as they were reminded of their fallen friend. Teaching Charms and Care for Magical Creatures, respectively. Professor Sprout has also seen it fit to retire, and so, we are joined by Professor Cunningham, for Herbology, and Professor Tonks for Defense Against the Dark Arts, also, for different reasons, our own Hermione Granger shall be Potions Professor until a suitable replacement can be found."

Harry, Hermione, Ginny, and Neville were relatively isolated from most of the Griffindors. There was silence as they all filled their plates wih food. They each were running through safe conversation topics in their heads settling on their newly dubbed teacher friend. She had chosen to have her first meal with her friends, but would move to head table later. They were congratulation her and asking her about the tests as they began to chow.

A/N: Hahahah, I KILLED RON. Bah, silly little boy. Some redheads must be exterminated to make way for the better specimens of the redhead community. That point aside, all cred for this story being begun goes to PookaSeraph, go read her WIKTT DaddyLongLegs Challenge Response, it is good, I swear on it. I know it is short for a first chapter, but I shall flush it out in the next chapter. I Promise, it has already been written. Mearly waiting to see if you all like this at all. This is my first Potter fic. I shall try my hardest to keep them relatively in character. Review por favor.


	2. Potions Class

Chapter 2: Potions

Authoress: Dodge-This

Based on idea by: PookaSeraph

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Disclaimer: Not mine, JK Rowling and WB.

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Hermione paced the cold stone floor of the potion room. Her eyes scanned the classroom before her. Cauldrons were lain out at each work station, all the day's ingredients were at the front table. She was nervous. She returned to pacing back and forth across the room as her thoughts returned to her earlier conversation with the Headmaster. She had been summoned to her chambers the moment she arrived. Two days before anyone else of course.

            "Miss Granger." The Headmaster scanned the student he had seen grow through the years. She was so different from the nervous bushy haired first year. "As you know, as result of Voldemort's fall, all those bearing the Dark Mark were returned to the age they were marked at."

_            She nodded as she kept her gaze trained on the man she had respected since learning of him in _Hogwarts, A History._ He seemed so frail, but she could never truly think that again, after witnessing him in the final battle. _

_            "What you may not know is that their memories past that date were erased as well." Once again he paused until she nodded her understanding. "As a younger member of the Order, you, as well as Messers Potter and Weasley, were privy to more than a little confidential information."_

_            "Yessir." Her mind was running circles trying to figure what this was about. _

_            "If memory serves, you knew the identity of one double agent of mine." His eyes sparkled behind his half moon glasses as he watched the gears grinding behind her eyes._

_            " Snape, sir. We figured it in fourth year, Harry saw his—" Her eyes widened. "He was de-aged as well?"_

_            "Yes, Miss Granger. Your potions Professor shall be returning, aged 17 years, for his final year at Hogwarts."_

_              Hermione kept her mouth shut as she considered the repercussions. Snape would be in their year. Snape would be in their classes. Snape would not remember a damn thing he had done to them. " I've wandered into the Weasleys, Tonks, and Cunningham, did I miss someone? We still need a Potions Professor."_

_            "A minor hurdle we have come to. With Snape in his current—condition—he will be in no state to teach." Dumbledore walked around his desk to go stand before a bookshelf. "As such, after conversing with the other professors, we have seen fit to assign you the task, temporarily if not permanently."_

_            Hermione fell back in the dark red chair. "You want me to be Potions Master?"_

_            Dumbledore smiled._

_            "But what about my classes?" Hermione questioned, she did not want to fall behind in her studies._

_            "Well, the staff agrees that you already have the abilities to pass you NEWTs right now. You already memorized this years course books, have you not?"_

_            "I have," she whispered._

_            "Well then, that settles it," he clapped and house elves came in, bearing NEWT papers and tests to qualify her for the position._

_            Three hours later she walked out of his office, dazed and qualified to teach._

            Hermione forced herself to stop pacing and settle into the menacing stone chair behind her desk. She rubbed her temples, sunk in and closed her eyes. Honestly, it was more comfortable than it appeared. She smiled to herself. She stared at the large grandfather clock in the corner. Five minutes until class.

            Students began to filter into her classroom. She waved at the to find their own seats as her gaze rested on her itinerary. Seventh year students first. Grand. The class filed in and the students looked up. No doubt wondering what she was doing there, she thought. She glanced at the clock again. Class time had begun. She rose from her seat and scanned the crowd. Since it was no longer a required class after 5th year, the number of students was so small that each 6th and 7th year class was all in one. She cleared her throat and the chatter came to a halt.

            "Most of you know me," she started, "and are no doubt wondering what I am doing here." She stopped pacing and settled her lower back against her desk. "The Headmaster administered my NEWTs early, and some qualifying tests for the position. So I will be your teacher until Dumbledore can find a replacement. Until then, I do expect respect from all of you." Her gaze stopped on Malfoy. "As it is, begin, for the first week we will be working on a base to much of what we will be working on this year. Do try to get it right the first time." She waved her wand at the board and the directions for the appeared.

            The students seemed skeptical of the teaching arrangement, but they paired off and gathered ingredients. The class divide was obvious, each House stuck together in a corner of the room, averaging about five of each House. There was little interaction between the groups at the supplies table as well.

            Hermione sighed and sank back into her chair, surveying the classroom. Harry had paired up with Neville, since Ron was no longer around. The usual pairings, evident in the earlier years, were forming again. There were noticeable holes due to losses in battle, but compensations were made and the class milled about their work.

            In the Slytherin corner there was a full class. The majority of those resorted due to the age reduction had been resorted into Slytherin, flushing out that House more than the others. Reminded of this she scanned the Slytherin corner to take note of the new additions. Lucius had monopolized his offspring as a partner. They were talking quietly amongst themselves. There were a few other Death Eaters that she recognized from various brushes with death. Oh goddess, Antonin Dolohov. That man almost killed her in the Department of Mysteries. She let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding.

            She tore her eyes away to scan the rest of the class. She knew all of the Gryffindors, and recognized most of the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws. There, on the edge of the Slytherin sector, Severus, he was at a desk without a partner. Hermione watched and compared him to his older self. She was still attracted to him. She had 'fancied' him since the end of fifth year. Still had large hands and long fingers, not quite the same dexterity he exhibited when older. Same intense concentration. On her. Shit. The look on his face said he had been watching her observing him for more than a few minutes. She tore her gaze off him.

She returned to her class and wandered around the room. When she noted an off color potion she would move in to tell them how to fix it. She continued down the second row making it to Harry and Neville. She held her breath and counted to three.

"Purple?" She asked simply.

"Sorry, Mione—" Harry started. Hermione glared at him. "Sorry, Professor Granger."

She nodded. "You added far too much of the boomslang, seeing as we are only this far into the potion, you should start over as opposed to trying to fix it. Pay mind to the directions please." She began to walk away, "Please sit up front next time as well."

Harry only nodded as he dumped their potion as Neville went to gather more ingredients.

She nodded and moved on reminding herself to check back with them. She wandered past the rest of the Griffindors, Hufflepuffs, and Ravenclaws, making changes when needed. Soon she passed the easy part of the class and started for the front of the Slytherin corner. She sighed and walked up the aisle, at least the majority of the Slytherins knew what they were doing, she mused. She paused to remind Zabini that the directions read shred, not powder. As she made her way past the Malfoys, she looked in the cauldron. As she raised her gaze she was internally shocked to see something other than total mind consuming hate in Draco's eyes. It seemed like…respect? I had hoped, but never expected any respect, from him in particular. At the meeting of their eyes he nodded.

She nodded acknowledgement to the boy, wondering how much he could have changed as a result of the war. She looked to his father who was engrossed in stirring the concoction and watching the colors come to form the right color.

She finished the rounds, coming to face Severus. He had watched as she had moseyed the classroom and fixed potions. At least the woman knew what she was doing, he conceded. He kept his eyes on hers as she glanced at his perfect baby blue potion. Goddess, those eyes. She smiled and nodded, keeping her thoughts to herself.

"That is as farthest step you will be able to complete today, place a stasis charm and read chapter one in your book." Hermione turned back to the front of the classroom to revisit Harry and Neville.

            The two were doing better this time. She told Neville to keep stirring until the coloring was consistent. He bowed to her expertise as she returned to her desk. She looked to the clock. Five minutes left. "All of you, pack up, place stasis charms and leave your cauldrons in the back room. Read and take notes on chapter one in your books, quiz next week on the properties of the base potion we are making."

            She settled back into her chair. Not bad, if I do say so myself. Wish there was more class unity, still. She could feel the heat from the proverbial light bulb above her head.

            "One last announcement." The class quieted in their seats. "There will be a party in my room starting at 6:30, open invitation to all sixth and seventh years, in this room. Extra credit will be offered to all those that attend and stay the night. Even without point incentive I wish for **all** of you to attend." She lingered a moment, "Dismissed. Mr. Malfoy, stay after a moment." She returned to her papers. The class cleared out.

            She heard a throat clear and raised her gaze again, Draco and Lucius were standing at her desk. "I'm sorry, Draco Malfoy. Lucius you may wait outside if you wish to wait for Draco."

            The teen nodded and casually made his way out of the room. She shook her head at the thought of one of the most feared and influential wizards of their time in her class.

            "Draco, I am under the impression that you have at least a little sway in your House," Hermione said. At his slow nod she continued. "I would be very appreciative if you could drag even a few of the Slytherins to my gathering."

            Draco genuinely smiled, "Anything for the Head of House."

            She nodded him out. She contemplated his words and stormed off to Dumbledore's.

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THE PARTY IS NOT NEXT CHAP sorry, didn't want you to get your hopes up, but we still have to do more classes.

Authoresses Notes: Alright! This chapter was fun to write. I'd just noticed I was using some funky half first half third point of view. One may debate it would be proper to call half of 1 and 3 to be 2, and yet this is something totally different. In any matter, please tell me what you think of my writing style.

Reviewer Thanks:

trinaa: Potions will be more fun, I assure.

bookwyrm: Sorry you feel that way

alicat999: I'm trying to keep the wait down, so here you are!

CassandraTheEvil: Yeah, Ron was a little prat, disgrace to all red heads. Me being one of them decided that he should die. Glad you like the absence of Ron.

beth: thanks

Silverthreads: Yeah, I know. I didn't really like the first chapter myself, but intro must be made, that's why it's so short.

Larna Mandrea: Quite brutal indeed.

ThereIsNoSp00n: My imagination is one to be feared, to be sure.


	3. One Grueling Day

Chapter 3: One Grueling Day

Authoress: Dodge-This

Based on idea by: PookaSeraph (she's got a SSHG fic too, go read it)

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            Hermione stormed up to the Headmaster's abode, hoping he would be in, so she could throttle his neck. She glared at students who got in her way, scaring all but a small group of seventh year Slytherins. She stood before the gargoyle and yelled, "Chocolate Frog!"

            The gargoyle hopped out of her rather quickly as the staircase came to a rest at her feet. She hurried up the stairs and into Dumbledore's office.

            "I am what?" She asked exasperatedly of her Headmaster.

            Dumbledore looked up at her from his comfy chair, leather bound book in his lap. "Sorry my dear, I'm afraid I don't know what you are speaking of." He said, eyes twinking.

            "The younger Mr. Malfoy was kind enough to inform me that I was the Head of Slytherin." She huffed and sank into a chair.

            "I shall assume that you are referring to Draco, though at this moment Lucius is the younger Malfoy." He sat in his chair. "Sherbert lemon?"

            She shook her head. "So I'm Head of Slytherin?"

            "Yes, the only Slytherin on staff is Professor Vector, and she politly refused the position. As the replacement of the past Head, you were nominated for the position." He sucked on a sherbert. "Your rooms are closest to their rooms as well."

            "I had wondered why my rooms were in the dungeons." Tricky, manipulative old man.

            "Well, no trouble then, you've got class in five minutes." He smiled.

            She shook her head to herself, it's not like it was a big deal anyway. She trotted back to her classroom, taking shortcuts she learned from exposure to Harry and Ron. She winced at the name. Now that wont do. It was still painful to think of Ron, but she had to or he would be forgotten. She shook herself out of her musings and entered her class. Sixth years. She thought to her hastily made lesson plans. As she strode into the room she began speaking. "We will be spending much of first term on poisons and their antidotes, so who can tell me the effects of Scarburow Poison?" She looked around the class and spotted Ginny. She smiled and returned to the task at hand. Looking to a blond boy with his hand in the air, "Yes, name and House first."

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            Hermione looked to the clock. "Alright class dismissed, there will be a welcoming party of sorts in here, starting at 6:30 tonight. Extra credit to all those that stay the entire night, participation is highly recommended. See you all in class Thursday, if I'm not mistaken." After the class filed out she filed a few notes she had taken on her class. She mused that even as a teacher she was eternally taking notes.

            She thought back on the day. Not bad for the first round. She had made it to lunch time. She gathered her things neatly on her desk before starting off to the Great Hall. She exited and warded her classroom before turning to almost run into Ginny, who had been waiting for her.

            The girl smiled. "Nice class. I think I actually learned something. Heading to lunch?"

            Hermione nodded and smiled, "Glad you liked it, not too scary?"

            The redhead began walking beside her to the Hall. "At the start, you did kinda stomp in and give us a scare, it was like Snape on the first day of Potions. But after you got down to being all nice."

            She cocked her head at her friend, "I guess I'll take that as a compliment?"

            They both wandered through the corridors and at the door to the Great Hall Hermione split off, "I'm supposed to sit up at the 'Big Table,' but you'll come to my party right?" She pushed out her bottom lip in an absurd poud.

            "Yes, yes, now off with you, go yell at my brothers for me." She playfully shoved Hermione towards the Head Table

            "What did they do?" She asked as she walked backwards to the table.

            "I don't know, they probably deserve it," She laughed and settled at Gryffindor table with Neville and Harry.

            Hermione shook her head and sat in the seat saved for her between the Weasley teachers.

            As soon as she sat down she was questioned on how her first day was going, if the students were good, given any good detentions lately. She staved off the questions for a moment to try and answer them. She paused for a moment.

"Which of you is teaching what?" She asked in an attempt to take in some food in the time the response took.

Bill looked at her funny, "Must you ask even?"

It was then she took a moment to actually look at them. Bill, on her left, was outfitted in muggle clothes, loose gray tailored pants and a black silk shirt with hair cropped fashionably close and slightly spiked. On her other side was Charlie, outfitted in worn black jeans and a rather tight fitted gray shirt, also worn, with a vaguely dragon shaped squiggle on the front, underneath printed CMU SCS, his hair was tied back into a ponytail trailing down his back. There was a brown leather jacket tossed over the back of the chair.

She laughed to herself and took a bite of corn, "Is that indignation I hear Bill?"

He shook his head, "Just can't see how I could be confused for him."

Charlie dropped his fork and exclaimed, "Oh come on, chicks dig the sexy!" He said gesturing to himself. He nudged her for back up.

"Hm? Oh, oh yeah, of course chicks dig the sexy," she managed to get out. After the moment of silence the three started cracking up.

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            Severus was poking the food on his plate as he briefly contributed to his conversation with Draco, Lucius, and a few others. Much of his meal was spent observing his new Potions Professor. Interesting, he thought, she was more than competent in Potions, was friends with some seventh year students, a younger redhead student, and a few of the new Professors. She was intelligent enough to pass eight NEWTs before term even started.

            Startled from his reverie by Lucius telling a horrid potion joke he responded, "It would be vampire blood, not bat blood anyway," and settled back into thinking.

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            Hermione walked back to her room and let herself in before mentally prepping herself for her first years. Ok, we wont scare them, scaring bad. Go over basics. Students filtered in. Some came in a few minutes late, with first years on the first day of school she thought she would let that slide a bit.

            "Today is an exception because it is your first day of school in the castle. From now on try to be on time. Today we will be covering the very basics of potion making." She settled on her desk. "Who can tell me how potion making differs from many other wizarding subjects?"

            She nodded to a brown haired girl in the back of the class. "Name and House?"

            "Liza Teirdre, Gryffindor." She motioned for her to continue. "Potions is the only wandless practice of magic."

            "Not quite, though that is what I was looking for. There are a few others not requiring a wand, none you are taking this year."

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            I made it through all my classes. She thought she managed her first years well. Hadn't scared them near as badly as Severus had in her first year. Severus… where'd that come from? She mused. She checked herself, ok, invited both the sixth and seventh years, shouldn't be that many people. As Potions wasn't mandatory after 5th year, the classes were much smaller, at about twenty each for the whole grade level. With the sixth an seventh years, that brought the total to forty. She didn't expect them all to show, so thirty give or take. She expected the point incentive to draw in those who didn't know how hard she would grade, and wanted an early start. Of course that was her manner of thinking---Her thoughts were interrupted by a  knock on her closed classroom door.

            "Enter," she said as she finished organizing her notes for the day.

            Dumbledore wandered into her classroom looking around. "Seems you managed well."

            She smiled, "Yes, not bad for my first day."

            He nodded, "I hear you were planning a party?"

            "Oh, I had forgotten to ask if it was ok." She was surprised at herself, forgetting about rules, how could she.

            "No problem, no problem at all. This early in the year, why not. We are in need of a good bit of celebration. Just let them go before curfew." He began to meander his way back to the hall. "Have a good time."

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            Hermione settled herself into her chair for dinner, giving her input when it was required. Her mind was racing, planning out this evening. After dinner I'll have about a half an hour. She shook her head to herself and started eating faster.

            When she finished she excused herself and walked out of the hall, breaking into a jog once out the doors. Rounding a corner towards the stairwell to the kitchen she ran into a person about six inches taller than her, they both tumbled to the ground.

            "Owwie," Hermione rubbed her hip where she fell.

            "Need a hand?" She turned her attention from the fall to who she had run into. Severus Snape was standing in front of her offering a hand up.

            She smiled and took it, he gently pulled her to her feet. "Thank you, in a rush to prep for tonight." She continued with mock sternness, "You are coming, right?"

            He nodded, "Draco said we had to."

            "Good, see you then." She then made her way quickly to the stairs.

            He watched her off and laughed to himself shaking his head.

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            "Thanks so much Dobby!" She gave her house elf friend a hug. Her party was almost ready. Food was arranged, now she needed to go set up her room. Hermione waved one last time to Dobby and made her way back to her classroom.

            Once she made her way through the wards she gave her room a look over. She sighed and set to work.

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Reviewer Thanks:

MoonAssasin13: Her you are!

Tigerfanfry: Yes, amusing.

Parody-of-an-Angel: Hopefully it was interesting enough to keep you amused.

Larna Mandrea: Good to know you like, I guess we'll be seeing how Harry can handle Nev.

Suzaku West: Thank you for reviewing, I'm hoping to keep the pace up to once or twice updated per week at the very least. I'm guessing from the sn that you like anime of some sort, coughgoreadmyRanmaficcough

Slytherin Queen: Sevvy didn't have a partner because I wanted to show that even in his school days he was introverted and didn't befriend easily.

Elnora: Yuppers, Mione is now Head o' Slytherin, should prove fun. I thought about the whole respect thing, but I think as long as she still acts authoritative in class that she can be a kid outside the classroom.

artemisgirl: Yes, not quite sure how I'm going about the SSHG ness yet, but it shall be done, so no worries.

Crazley: thank you lots!

MoD: Mmm, I thought it would help ease House rivalry b/w Slytherin and Gryffindor a bit.

alicat999: I'll be updating at least 1nce a week at veryvery least.

sanlashix: good to know people like it.

Spider Web: there shall be no DMHG, tis a SSHG story. And sorry if anyone is adverse to it, but Draco shall be getting some male tail. 10 points to respective House if you can guess who!

ParvisSira: Then more you shall see!

Sarahamanda: Will do Capn!

PART NEXY CHAP, YAYAY

Authoresses Notes: No clue where this chapter came from.

I am working on the assumption that there are four periods a day, 2 before lunch, 2 after. 4 periods a day for 5 days of the week.that's 20 periods. 2 periods for each grade. The sixth and 7th years are in one big class which meets twice a week. 14 of the 20 leaving 6 off periods which she takes on Thursday afternoon and Friday.

Scarburow Poison or whatever I called it, not based on anything except vaguely on a song called Scarbrough Fair I think.

Made me think of something potioney so I threw it in.


	4. Party Time

Chapter 4: Party Time!

Authoress: Dodge-This

Based on idea by: PookaSeraph

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            Hermione looked over the finished product that was her classroom. She had just finished warding the door to her personal rooms through the hall, the passage to her rooms from the supply closet, and finally the door into the supply closet. She looked over her room one last time. Desks had been situated on both sides of the room, in about ten minutes they would be stacked high with food from the kitchens. She had conjured streamers and balloons, which were situated around the room. There was an empty floor space for dancing, and she had transfigured some of the student chairs into more comfy couches. As a final touch she laid a spell she had found in an advanced charms book that would undo it all at 10. The students' curfew was at 9:30 as six and seventh years, so that would be plenty of time. Finally she took a boom box, which she had witched to work in Hogwarts, and set it to playing modern music.

            She let out a final sigh and sank into one of her couches. Hmm, comfy. She yawned. The students would arrive in about twenty minutes, she could take a little snooze.

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            Hermione's eyes cracked open to be greeted with massive amounts of students littered about her room. Apparently it was a good plan. She scanned the crowd. She shook her head. There were nowhere near sixty students in her classes combined. Extra turn out, oh well.

She looked around until her eyes rested on Ginny, strangely enough she was sitting in a group with Neville and a bunch of Slytherins in a corner where some couches had been relocated. She wandered over behind the red head on the couch. As she was about a meter behind her, the red head knelt on the floor and spun an empty bottle of butterbeer. She observed as Ginny settled back on the couch, discretely pulled out her wand, and started twirling it behind her back, before slipping it away as the bottle came to a complete stop.

            "Lucius," Ginny said with a smile on her face. She got to her feet.

            Hermione grinned and settled her arms on the couch behind Ginny's vacated spot.

            Ginny stepped over the bottle and straddled Lucius, who sported a large smirk on his face. She lowered her lips to his and threaded her hands behind his head. Lucius' hands came to rest on her hips. It was a few moments before the group started with catcalls, cued by this Ginny leaned into the kiss. As far as Hermione could tell from behind the couch, both parties were getting rather into it. Eventually Ginny retreated breathlessly as the catcalls died down. She faced an amused Hermione.

            "Join us?" Ginny said, making room on the couch next to her.

            Hermione shook her head, "I don't think---"

            "Please?" The little red headed vixen beside her pleaded.

            Hermione caved and settled in beside her friend, rolling her eyes. She sat and waited.

            "You turn, Prof." Pansy Parkinson? She was not in my class this morning.

            Her eyes widened. She nodded and knelt, she spun the bottle and settled back into her spot to wait. Ginny fidgeted beside her. The bottle slowed and came to rest on…Snape.

            Goddess only new how much she wanted to kiss him, but considering he was a student, short and sweet was probably more kosher in the situation. She rose to her feet and crossed the center of the circle. Short and sweet, short and sweet, she thought. Hermione settled one knee beside him and leaned down, with every intention of short and sweet. As their lips met Severus snaked a hand to the back of her neck and held her.

            Tricksy little Slytherin, she thought. She accepted his attempt to deepen the kiss, and was quite…actively participating until he let her go. She hesitated a moment before pulling away and settling back in her seat, trying to keep the smile off her face…and failing…miserably.

            Strange gathering. As some Slytherin sixth year leaned to spin Hermione excused herself whispering to Ginny, "I'm gonna go make rounds."

            Ginny smirked as she watched Snape's eyes followed her path out of the circle. She laughed to herself, have to tell her about this later.

            Hermione exited the circle with her hand to her mouth. Hm, not a bad kisser. Whoa, bad bad bad thoughts. Severus Snape. Another part of her brain continued, Mmm, Snape, We've liked him for, what, 2 years now?

            She shook her head and went to mingle.

%%%

            Hermione looked at the grandfather clock near her door. 9:10 already? No trace of Ginny or Lucius for a good hour. Have to ask about that later. Hermione excused herself from the group of Ravenclaws she had been chatting with and shouldered her way up to her desk. She looked over the sea of people she had approximately eighty people squished into her classroom.

            "Sonorus." With her amplified voice she spoke over the music and crowds, "Alright. I'm afraid your night has drawn to a close. You all have twenty minutes to get to your rooms. Did you all have fun?" She was actually wondering if this was worth looking into as maybe a monthly occurrence. There was a roar of cheers from all the students. She nodded, "Then I'll look into making this tradition." She nodded. "Now scat all of you, class tomorrow. Off with you."

            As the students filed out her door she placed a charm to record everyone's name. After the last had left she looked at the room. The food had vanished from the table by some means, the plates as well vanished before her eyes, no doubt returning to the kitchen.

            "Quietus." She murmured, wand pointed at the throat. She pointed her wand at the room. "Scourgify." Crumbs, food, and spills were taken away with a slight breath of wind. "Now that's better." She yawned and warded the classroom, letting the time on her spell run out and undo her work.

            She yawned and moved to her supply closet, warding it after her, then moving to the back of the long narrow room and tiredly drew the last wards, tapping a sequence of stones, and falling into her bed after re warding her room.

%%%

            Hermione opened her eyes to be greeted with bright sunlight streaming in through the only window in her room. To make up for its loner nature it was a very big window. In fact leading out to a pleasant little patio. But that was not the concern of the moment. Sunlight meant that Hermione should have been a awake at least an hour ago.

            Hermione looked at the light and hurried her aching body into her shower. She quickly shampooed and conditioned before hopping back out. She stared at her hair and decided it was not worth managing. She rushed to her room to find some ornamental muggle chopsticks. She rushed back to her mirror and wound her hair into a bun sticking the chopsticks through until it all stayed up.

            Hermione then opened her wardrobe and shoved past the stuffy wizarding robes with far too many buttons for her liking. She danced herself into some black jeans and a button up collard shirt. She grabbed some sandals and composed herself on the way up to the Great Hall, noticing her charm had returned her room to its former state.

            She smugly headed off to the Great Hall through a passage she learned from the map

&&&

Reviewer Thanks:

Suzaku West: Thank you much!

Sarahamanda: Shall do.

Sabrina: Thank you, idea was my sisters, but she was too lazy to write it.

CassandraTheEvil: Thank you.

fleria: I noticed the owwie thing when I was writing it, but forgot to go back n fix it. The schedule thing was more of how I see a lot of fics that don't think about it and have them in the same class like every day of one week, tre annoying.

Lily of the Shadow: Actually I was going on that all the death eaters were young, but that many would have died since they were the loosing side, as well as the fact that I don't really like them so I wasn't focusing on it.

 Slytherin Queen: I kno, but I don't want it to be a pointless WAFF fic, so I thought I'd try to make it as realistic as I could, a difficult task considering its fiction…

Alarase: I was gonna touch on the topic of what the Death Eaters knew in chapter 5, so all the more reason to look in in a few days/ a week.

Dark Lady Mara: I noticed that, chapter 5 is gonna touch more on how Sev acts out of Herm's view.

Sonja S.: (see above for another chapter) lol

Parody-of-an-Angel: lol, it is, or was?

artemisgirl: thank you for encouragement!

chickens: oki, thanks, some people have been buggin me to italicize thoughts and stuff, but I don't wanna so I'll just do it my way.

crazley: thank you

Irina Derevko: As far as I know Snape is acting as a double agent, meaning he is still an active death eater, but spying for Dumbledore, because of this he was a death eater, and besides I don't think the dark mark would go away anyhoo.

Goth Princess: lol, Snape, electric slide, lol, I seriously thought of putting it in, but then, its not really him, is it?

Authoresses Notes: Whee!! Party Chapter finally done, me thinks the next chapter or two will be Hermione talking with Bill and Charlie, lecture by Bumbledore and the Gryffindor/Slytherin class.


	5. Interesting Conversations

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Chapter 5: Interesting Conversations

Authoress: Dodge-This

Based on idea by: PookaSeraph

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Disclaier: Not mine. Snivles.

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Hermione walked late into the Great Hall, her purveyor of food through elfin means. She made her way between the tables to settle in her spot. She sighed and stared at the food. Too much effort in the morning Charlie looked over her attire.

"Aren't we the muggle today." He said happily, gauging her response from the relative safety of behind his toast. Toast with jam. Strawberry jam.

Hermione decided that she didn't dislike strawberry jam enough to pass it up. So she opened her mouth to reply as she snicked his toast, "Woke up late, your silly wizarding robes have too many damn buttons." She munched happily on her toast.

Bill looked over, seeing she wasn't in a mood to manage her own toast he jammed two and set one on his plate, on her side. "The robes are good if you're going for the menacing wizardy look," he bit and chewed, "but I myself prefer these muggle articles."

Hermione finished 'her' toast, she sighed resignedly as she contemplated jamming her own toast, an insurmountable task, to be sure. It was then she noticed the purposefully unguarded toast of Bill. "Muggle clothing is rather comfy," She said while filching Bill's toast.

Charlie looked over and began loading her plate for her, he also poured her a cup of coffee. "Drink that, you'll feel better."

She sniffed it, "Mmm, coffee." She downed a cup and poured another. "Can't be a good muggleborn if you aren't addicted to coffee."

Charlie began speaking through his eggs, after a few words he realized he wasn't being very successful so he swallowed. "I hear you threw one hell of a party last night. You didn't invite us?"

"It was for the students, thank you. But by the end of the night I had a fair number of not my students in attendance." She took another sip of coffee before taking a sip of pumpkin juice from Bill's cup. "Eighty-seven people total by the end. I only have forty-one in the classes I invited."

"Anyone have eyes on our little sister?" Bill said with mock sternness. Hermione snorted in Bill's cup, "Aww, gross man, that was mine, ugh, keep it." He stole Hermione's coffee cup.

"Not particularly," she said gently, "any reason why?" She picked up a piece of bacon and nibbled on the end.

"She's been crushing on Lucius since second year. Hell if I know why, she almost died because of him, bloody bastard."

Hermione tutted at his language while her mind whirled through the night's activities. So Gin was…pursuing…Lucius. Interesting.

&&&

Severus Snape sat with most of the 'new' seventh year Slytherins. None of them had questioned how they had been shifted twenty years into the future. And Slytherins were supposed to be cunning. Dumbledore said something about a freak accident at the end of sixth year. He had been rather vague, actually. He poked his eggs before setting down his fork and picking up a slice of bacon and crunching on the end. His gaze shifted along the head table stopping briefly on Professor Hermione and the redheads whose names he had forgotten. She smiled at one of the two and had a bite of toast. Redheads, bloody blighters, the lot of em. He lurched to the side as Lucius pulled him from his introspection.

"I can walk, you know." Lucius shook off his comment and towed him away to Charms. That was something else, he had known the Malfoy family before, but Lucius was a good five years older than him. And there certainly wasn't some freak accident that produced another Malfoy, namely Draco, in the same year as them. Answers, I want answers, he thought as he followed Lucius.

Lucius barely missed running his friend into a door jam. Severus scowled at hm. He was ignored as usual, and unceremoniously dumped into a seat.

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Hermione groaned as the sun met her eyes. Thursday. She blinked her eyes. I've almost made it through my first week, she thought. She slid her legs over to the side until they fell from the bed's support and landed on the floor, she pushed herself upright and picked out her outfit for the day. I feel like a comfy day. She pulled out some baggy jeans and flung them at her bed. Comfy, comfy, comfy, ah comfy! She pulled out a red flannel shirt and tossed it on her bed in passing on her way to the tub.

She turned the tub taps and started stripping off her pooh bear pajamas. When she finished she went over to a shelf and picked out some scented crystals, tossing them in the tub. They sank and dissolved, filling the air with the smell of lavender. She sank in and planned her day.

"Right now its about 6:10, I'll be bathed, clothed, and done-up by 6:45 ish. Finish up on planning next weeks lessons until breakfast starts at 7:30." She wallowed in the warmth of her tub. "First week hasn't been too bad." She squeezed some shampoo into her hand. Hermione had always been attached to her muggle products, but once she tried making her own cosmetic supplies she fell in love. Now that she had access to her own lab it was far easier making it than sneaking in with Myrtle every other month.

She rinsed her concoction from her hair with a showerhead and finished bathing, thinking and talking to herself. After a while she rose from the bath and let out the drain, she wrapped herself in a towel and sat at her vanity. After ten minutes of effort she was dry, made-up, and polished to as close to perfection as she had come in the past three years. She hung her towel and dressed in her outfit messily placed on her bed.

She settled to her desk piled with her own papers and pulled out the first year plan sheet. She had been nice last week with the introduction, but they needed to get to work, so now was as good as ever. She thought back to her first year and decided that the boil cure they had done would be a good start. She continued to scribble until she looked to her grandfather clock, seeing it was getting close to breakfast she piled her plans and put the back into vague order before walking to the Great Hall.

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After breakfast she wandered back down to her classroom and set out her notes for today's class. They were going to continue working on poisons. She was starting with one that had no serious consequences if it was come in contact with before done brewing, if say, a cauldron exploded. Bay Poison was today's project. She set the ingredients on the supply table and made sure the antidote she had brewed a day ago was handy. This done she took her seat and opened _Dangerous Poisons and Their History_.

As a teacher, Hermione had been taking advantage of her newfound privilege to roam the Restricted Section. She looked up in the middle of the Trans Poison, which ate away from the inside with intense pain and no antidote unless administered in the first day of the poisoning.

Her sixth years were starting to filter in. She placed the book in her desk and closed and locked it. She sat and watched the students take their seats chattering among themselves. She met Ginny's eyes as she walked in with a Gryffindor friend named Jenna Roberts. They smiled at each other. At lunch on Tuesday she approached Ginny about what Bill and Charlie revealed about her 'fancying' Lucius. Ginny had smiled and confirmed her brothers' speculation. Hermione shook her head to herself. Ginny is trying to hook Lucius.

Looking at the clock Hermione got up and walked to the front of her class and leaned back on her desk. "We began studying poisons, you should have read up on them for me, so today we will start making one. We will make Bay Poison, take note of the scent it has to it, at the end of the unit you will be tested on the recognition of some poisons." She waved her wand and the directions appeared on the board. "Directions, supplies," she said, pointing to each. "Don't mess up, bottled and labeled on my desk at the end of class. Begin." Student got up from their seats and moved to the table.

She sat at her desk, what did Snape do with the time he had sitting here? Graded, she answered herself. She hadn't had any class more than once except this one. They need to get used to work, homework shall be and essay on their next potion. She looked through next week's class plans. Virani Poison. One foot, I suppose. She nodded to herself and got up to start her rounds.

She started on the left side of the room. Luna Lovegood was stirring her silver potion while staring at the wall in front of her. Hermione couldn't figure out if she was daydreaming or if she always did this, but as long as the potion was ok she didn't mind. She meandered through the room occasionally informing someone that it was time to add something, but most of the students were competent. To have made it this far they had to have a serious attitude about Potions.

She wandered past her students and decided none had made any mistakes that would greatly affect the outcome. She returned to her desk and doodled, her class looked on and saw their teacher involved in something, apparently serious. They got back to work as a sketch of the room formed on Hermione's page.

%%%

As the last student came to her desk and slid his flask into the holder she turned her eyes to the class. "Alright, I don't know what misconceptions you may have formed about me being nicer than the prior Potions Professor, but I will be no more easy on you. An essay—" She was cut off at the collective groan of the class. "Hey, you picked the class. Foot long essay on the effects and background of the Virani Poison. Due on, hmm, Monday. Dismissed." She cocked her head and smiled sweetly.

The class resumed to its chatter as they packed books and papers. She returned to her desk. Ginny wandered up to her desk after class.

Hermione spoke without looking up, "How's Operation Snake Charmer going?"

"Decently, not the point." She looked at her feet. "I'm really glad to have you as our teacher. I really like Potions and was worried you would slack. But that was silly, Hermione slack off." She shook her head, "Anyway, you're a great teacher, I just wanted to tell you in case no one else had." Ginny wandered out to her next class.

She smiled to herself as her friend left her. Seventh years would finish up their potion base. She relaxed and worked on her sketch in the absence of her classes. In ten minutes her seventh years filtered in. It was apparent that the party had crumbled a few barriers, much of the class was openly mingling, pairs were moving around the room. Harry and Neville sat in the front as she instructed. Some were trying valiantly to uphold the barriers, but partners were being tugged around the room near newfound friends. As the class came to a stop she wandered around her desk.

"Finish your potions from Monday. There will be an essay due next meeting on this base and its uses. Directions for this section are on the board." She waved her wand and the last class's instructions shuffled to form the directions for the assignment. "Begin. Quiet talking allowed until you mess up, as long as you stay on task."

At her order one of each pair rose and got the cauldron as the other gathered the ingredients on the board. Good, she thought. She returned to sketching the pattern of the stone floor. She glanced up occasionally to see if Harry and Neville were doing ok.

As the class got further into the process she rose from her seat to wander the room. The seventh years knew her, and her reputation. Believing that it held over to her teaching they were being particularly observant about their process, making sure they did it right. She walked to the corner of the room Snape was seated in near the Malfoys. Severus smiled at her and leaned back to let her inspect his potion. She smiled back and bent slightly to see his potion over the rim. It was the exact shade of lavender it should be. She nodded, "When it's done with the simmer bottle it and label it. You will need five flasks. Put it in the store room."

He nodded and lowered the heat. "I need to talk to you after class."

She gave him a questioning glance, but when he said no more she nodded. Hermione walked away to her final table, the Malfoys. As she faced them Draco gave her a smirk, but not the usual 'I'm better than you, mudblood' look, just a slightly mischievous look. She ignored it and looked over their potion. She nodded and walked back to her desk. Draco leaned over to whisper in Lucius' ear.

%%%

The last student walked back to storage and put their potion in with the ranks. "Ok, remember, quiz on chapter one on Monday. I will also be collecting and grading your notes on the chapter as well." She waved her hand at the class, "Out, lunch time."

Lucius and Draco got swiftly from their seats, they flanked Snape and started marching him to the door against his will. Silly boys, "Malfoys, I need to talk to Severus before you take him away. Don't wait, it may be a while." Hermione didn't actually know if it would, but Snape was looking at her gratefully.

The Malfoys slowly relinquished their claim on Severus' arms and sulked out to the hall. Snape hurried away from them and made his way to her desk. He dropped his bag and rubbed fiercely at his forehead. "Thank you, so much." He glanced at the drawing of the classroom on her desk. He picked it up and turned around looking from picture to the room. "Impressive."

She was slightly surprised to hear a thank you followed directly by a compliment from this man. In her six years he hadn't given thanks to anyone. He's a totally different person, "What exactly did I save you from?"

His eyes widened. "Uh, boy-talk and Veritaserum." He looked at her when she snorted.

"You get your gender labeled conversations, believe it or not, we have ours." He shook his head, "I don't know when they gained the skill to do it themselves, highly restricted. Anyway, I have questions. I went to Dumbledore, but he said I should go talk to my Head of House."

She nodded, this was the first time any duties of her position had risen. She hoped she wouldn't botch it too badly. "Private?"

He nodded. She led the way into her office and placed a silencing charm on the door, to prevent eavesdropping. She went over to the fire and ordered two trays of food to her office before settling into a chair and offering another to him across the desk. Two plates appeared in front of them. "Help yourself, you're missing lunch. What was your question?"

"Why are we here?" He asked and picked a roll from his plate.

She took a drink and started thinking out loud for his benefit. "Well Dumbledore sent you to me, so probably expects me to tell the truth as opposed to whatever he told the lot of you." She ate a grape, "What did Dumbledore tell you, and how?"

"As much as I remember is it being July in our sixth to seventh year summer. I was at a…meeting…"

Hermione shook her head, "You have to tell me the truth, does this involve Voldemort?" He flinched at the name.

"Yes. I was at a meeting to get marked. I don't remember actually being marked though, and I don't have one," He rolled his sleeve and looked at his forearm. "Then there was darkness, I woke in the Infirmary." He started on another roll. "Dumbledore gathered us in his office, he said something vague about some freak accident that put us in the year 1998. For all the cunning, none of the Slytherins have questioned the Dark Lord apparently having been defeated, or anything else."

She nodded, "This will take a while. You want the whole truth, I can modify your memory with your consent later." He nodded and sipped at pumpkin juice observing his surroundings and settling into his chair. "Ok I'll start with you, though you are not in possession of the memories, you were living and aging during the last twenty years, is it?" He nodded slowly, absorbing the information. "You became a Death Eater, but later turned double agent for Dumbledore. You started working at Hogwarts as the Potions Professor, sometime you gained the qualifications for a Potions Master. You spied on Voldemort, so that we could act to prevent the worst. Me, Harry, Draco, you were our teacher for the past six years. Last summer you helped in the final battle, defeating Voldemort. Apparently Voldemort spelled the Mark to link to his demise. Everyone returned to the age marked at when he died."

"The man I was prepared to join for life was killed with my help? I guess I'll trust myself on that decision." He started on an apple. "Continue."

"Harry Potter, in your Potions class, he was prophesized to defeat or be defeated by Voldemort. Son of Lily and James Potter." He nodded slowly. "They were killed in Voldemort's efforts to get to their son."

His face flashed from glee to being stricken. "I guess it isn't too hard to see how I turned that way."

"You are in no way responsible for what you did, if that makes sense." He nodded and rubbed his head. "Um, Sirius was killed in a battle in my fourth year. Lupin was a teacher here in my third year. Pettigrew, was Voldemort's rat until the end." He nodded once more. "Lucius married Narcissa Black. Draco is their child." Severus blinked. "Narcissa died in the battle. I'm not sure what else to say, I think I covered most of it."

He nodded. "That will definitely take time to absorb. Covers a lot of why most of the school is shunning us. Was I a good teacher?"

Hermione hesitated. He raised a brow. "You knew everything about the material you were teaching, you never had any horrible accidents in your classes…You were, harsh on those who weren't as apt in the subject, and those not Slytherin."

"I take it I was an evil bastard who knew his stuff?" He smiled.

"That about sums it up." Hermione was relived he was taking it well.

He smiled and shook his head. He thought for a second, "You were a Gryffindor, right?" She nodded and ate some toast, "I'm sorry for anything I said or did. I was probably horrible to you, Gryffindor muggleborn, right?" She nodded. He laughed, "Smartest in my class as well?" She nodded again.

"You were mean."

"I am so sorry."

"I suppose it's alright, you're making up for it now." She smiled.

Severus looked stricken, "I'm being nice? I'll have to fix that for class."

"Please don't. Anyway, how are you liking class?" He looked hesitant. "Say whatever, wont take off points. Promise."

Suddenly a huge smirk crossed his face. "You do realize how far down your shirt we can see when you bend to check potions?" Hermione snorted her pumpkin juice and her eyes snapped open. She set down her cup and coughed.

Snape hurried over to her side of the desk and patted heavily on her back until she could breath again. Hermione proceeded to look down, the shirt was perfectly modest, but he was right, it was loose enough to see if she bent.

He went back to his seat. "Apparently not." She settled and crossed her arms across her chest. "Never said it was a bad thing." He smirked, "Your class is good too. Actually know your stuff."

She scowled, "You'll be late to class."

He shook his head. "Free period, I'll stay if you don't mind. Lucius is free too, they've been trying to catch me alone since the party."

Hermione blushed. Severus noted and tucked it into his head for reference. "What are they trying to get out of you?"

Severus looked up from an apple, he raised an eyebrow. "See if I like you as 'more than a teacher.'" He smirked as he flushed an even deeper red. He shoved off his chair and examined the books along the wall. "Whatcha got?"

She cleared her head, "Most of those are yours actually, these were your rooms until this year, a bunch of your stuff stayed here."

%%%

One hour found the floor around them scattered with books as they sat debating an article on the effects of Wolfsbane. Severus' glance rested on the clock. "Now I do have to get to class." He got up, pulled Hermione up, and brushed off some dust from his uniform. He offered his hand, "Pleasure to have mental challenges. Your company as well, of course." She smiled and took the hand. Instead of shaking he pulled gently so she fell forward a step. Severus kissed her lightly on the lips before letting go and wandering towards the door. "Off to Defense. Ta." The door shut behind him.

%%%

Reviewer Responses:

artemisgirl: thank you, spin the bottle inspirations actually goes to my cat!

Suzaku West: I hope I'm keeping up with everyone's update expectations.

Sarahamanda: Thank you for staying with me.

Slytherin Queen: I decided that since it wouldn't mess up any time continuum that it would be ok to kill people and repair them off to my suiting.

Fuuruma: Questions answered?

Miss Elvira: Yup, this is one fic I actually intend to finish.

Dragonsdaugter1: Thank ye.

Blade McKay: will do.

babydoll125: Glad to keep you amused.

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Authoresses Notes: 'crush' is the stupidest word in existence, and yet I use it mearly because I'm not in a make up words mood. If you want to see either Hermione, Snape, or the general population's schedule for classes and times please email me, HappyLeprechaungmail.com, its one of few things I put effort into, so I hope it helps with making the whole story flow better. The Bay Poison is based loosely on the fact that Bay Leaf is poisonous if digested. Vira whosi poison is loosely based on a potion mentioned in my sistahs fic, PookaSeraph, the Trans thingy I just pulled out of thin air.

I also do not own pooh bear.


	6. Cologne

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Chapter 6: Cologne

Authoress: Dodge-This

Based on Idea By: PookaSeraph

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Disclaimer: All J.K. Idea came from PookaSeraph

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            There were things hidden all around Hogwarts that few but the Founders knew. Hidden rooms and passageways could be discovered by a roaming student, but there were many undiscovered things that affected all habitants' lives greatly on a day to day basis. A moving stair could set you back ten or fifteen minutes, but Hogwarts castle could control many other things when it chose.

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            Hermione Granger had been getting used to waking up even earlier as a Professor than she ever had as a student. Even with her compulsive studying, she never woke more than an hour before breakfast. She yawned and swung her legs out of bed shocking some life into herself. "Wednesday." She shook her head, shower today, I suppose. She spelled her wardrobe open and sorted through.

            "Jeans and t-shirt." Even since Severus had mentioned the wonderful 'view' in Potions she had been wearing higher cut shirts. She stumbled into the shower and rinsed the sleep out of her eyes. She finished and wandered, clad in a towel, over to her vanity. She brushed out her hair and pulled through some of her own brew defrizzer before drying it.

            Hermione walked over to her desk and started working on plans for a few weeks from now. She figured that most other teachers would have planned lessons over the summer, so she was trying to catch up. She cracked her neck and got to work.

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            Twenty minutes before breakfast was due to begin she rose from her desk and sorted her papers into their place. I actually have papers now, she mused. Her desk was starting to look like a teacher's, a filing system and different color ink and a plethora of quills. She stuffed everything to near its respective place and got out of her chair moving to the door. She warded it after her and proceeded to the stairwell. While her classroom was in the dungeons, and she could get to her personal rooms through it, her door to the hall from her rooms led too the teachers wing. Because of the difference in temperature, she was pretty sure that her class was in the dungeons, while her own rooms were upstairs.

            It was of course known to her that the castle did strange things on occasion. One such thing that she read about in _Hogwarts, a History_ was that the pictures in the corridor to the Great Hall. Every Wednesday the pictures would be fixed upside down. The wizards and witches in these pictures weren't very happy with the arrangement.

            Hermione paused briefly to observe the Earl of Denby trying to keep on his toupee. She laughed to herself and walked to the Hall, greeting a Ravenclaw third year in her class. "Do your note taking?"

            The Ravenclaw nodded with sleep in her motions and moved off to her table, dragging her feet.

            Hermione moved to her seat at the Head Table, next to the already present Bill, "Where's Charlie?" She slumped into her seat and poured herself a cup of coffee.

            "Still asleep, apparently he hasn't gotten into the teacher flow of things."

            Their chatter continued over a half an hour until Charlie stumbled in, unshaven, to his seat. "You look awake." Hermione poured him some coffee. He accepted it and drank it with eyes half closed. Over the next ten minute Hermione returned to speaking with Bill until Charlie had enough caffeine in his system to participate in the conversation.

            Once it was noted Charlie was awake, Bill poked him from behind Hermione, "What's got you so wiped? Late night get together?"

            Charlie shook his head. "I took my seventh years to go visit two centaurs. It wasn't planned until I got yesterday's weather forecast." He munched on some bacon. "I got them to see us cause it was too clouded over to do any weather prediction."

            Bill nodded. "Good to know you're not taking a tumble with any of your students."

            "Amen," he said and began eating.

%%%

            Hermione worked her way through the throng of students down to the less populated dungeons. At the start it had seemed cold and dank, but it was growing on her with time. She definitely loved the solitude of it, Harry had come to visit her occasionally, he always seemed very distracted though. Ginny came to visit almost every other night, talking or for hair care. Last summer Hermione had introduce Ginny to the wonder of making her own hair and skin products, suited exactly to her texture.

            Hermione came to a stop at her classroom door. Lowering the wards, she stepped inside to ready for her fourth years, noisy little buggers. Yech, puberty. She glanced at her itinerary before setting out the ingredients for the Hapirus Potion. After she had finished she rooted through her desk for her lecture notes. Notes, notes, notes….No notes then, I don't need them, she thought, leaving her text book open to the proper page for reference.

As the first students filtered in she sat herself in the huge chair at the head of the room. She looked to her class and decided she was too far away for her liking. She wandered around to the front of her desk and leaned against it. Too close, she thought. She wrinkled her brow, is this honestly what teachers think about when the scowl at nothing? She shrugged to herself as her students looked on--convinced that their teacher was going nuts--as she wandered the area around her desk.

She shrugged to herself and hopped up to sit on her desk facing the class. They were all looking on, mildly interested, as their teacher settled. "Whether you've noticed or not, your fourth year will be focusing mostly on potions to control the mind, or alter the way it is working." She glanced at her class, "The range of this can be full control, highly illegal, to mental influences. We will be working on the Hapirus Potion. It works like an antidepressant, making your brain think you are more content that you are." She paused, "Dangers anyone?" She settled on the hells of her hands, until a red headed Slytherin raised her hand.

"Maria was it?" She asked. The girl nodded. "Continue."

"As with anything that can influence the manner in which you think, there are obvious dangers in an overdose, becoming completely oblivious, though content. They are also highly addictive if used for extended periods of time."

Hermione nodded, "Ten to Slytherin."

She hopped down off her desk and wandered behind it, "Begin on the Hapirus Potion, should take you three class periods to complete, instructions on the board, careful attention to chopping not grating the scales." She nodded and the class got up to work.

She settled to her desk, at least they're obedient little adolescents. She began doing a detailed sketch of an ominous looking light fixture. Ten minutes later she looked up to scan the class' progress as something was lobbed through the air from a Slytherin table, aimed at a cauldron on the other side of the room. Hermione pulled her wand from her sleeve. "Wingardium Leviosa," she murmured and observed.

A Slytherin at one of the back tables pushed back his chair, mouth wide, and stared openly at the floating object, "Mr. Willain," she said, keeping part of her attention on levitating the object. "Kindly step up here for a moment, the rest of you continue." Rostique Willain made his way up to the front as Hermione floated the object to her desk to rest in between them, shoving her picture under some student papers. "Care to inform me what this is?" She asked, gesturing to the Ridon egg in front of her.

"Ridon egg, Professor Granger." He stated.

She nodded, "Do you know what would have happened if you had succeeded?" Her voice was quiet.

"No, Professor." The kid was smirking at her.

"It would have vaporized the potion, at this point forming a sort of botched laughing gas that would have put everyone in this room in a coma for a week and a half." She said coldly. "Zero on the assignment, twenty points from Slytherin, and you will serve detention with Filch tonight directly after dinner until curfew." She smiled. "Clean up and do your homework until dismissal."

Rostique's mouth hung open as the punishment was dealt, but he kept his composure and slid back to his seat.

%%%

            Severus observed as his Potions Professor hustled into the Great Hall ten minutes late for dinner. She made to her seat and had a few words with the redheaded monstrosities that were his Charms and Creatures Professors. While she was talking she grabbed a role and yanked out the inside, stuffing it with some soupy stew before taking her leave from the room.

            Severus turned to picking at his meal. He took a sip of water when Lucius elbowed him in the gut. He inhaled his drink and coughed until he could breath again. "Well that wasn't near as subtle as I was hoping for." Lucius said calmly.

            "Ever so sorry, what do you want?" Severus asked as he finished clearing his throat with his remaining water.

            Lucius continued hushed, "I'm out of the stuff…you know, I need more before the weekend."

            Severus snorted, "I was gonna go make some tonight."

            "Oh, uh, good." Lucius turned to his meal.

            "So…Who you trying to hook?" Severus inquired. Lucius cut off the end of his sentence.

            "Keep it down boy!" He looked around, "Weasley." Severus snorted again. "What? Better than your mud—." Severus glared. "—muggleborn."

            Severus shook his head and got up, "I'm gonna head down now, I'll have it by later tonight." He shook his head at the absurdity and wandered the halls to the dungeons.

            He was whistling to himself by the time he got there. He knocked on the door to the classroom, but it swung open of its own accord at his first knock. "That's had a good greasing." He looked around the empty classroom towards the desk, and behind. The door into the office was slightly ajar. He silently made his way over and lightly pushed the door open.

            He looked around and found the room empty. He shrugged to himself and went over to a bookshelf next to three feet of blank wall. Down on the first shelf there was a jar containing three free floating frog spleens. He tapped his wand twice on the lid and watched as a door slid open quietly. Still works after a few decades, he thought. Severus grinned as he saw his teacher with a cauldron beside her, bent over some—Trigod scales—by the looks of it. She had a knife and was chopping them into relatively uniform size.

            He sauntered up across the table from her and stopped. Realizing she still didn't see him he bent over and 'hmm'ed, looking at her potion.

            Hermione yelped and snapped up, dropping the knife trying to get to her wand. She looked at her attacker before seeing it was Severus, standing looking quite innocent. She sighed and settled back to her chair as the adrenaline drained away. She winced and looked at her hand. In her fright and dropping the knife she had sliced the side of her hand open. It didn't hurt so much as look gross.

            She looked up grumping at her student. He was fishing through his cloak, he pulled out a green handkerchief lined in silver, pressing it over the wound.

            "How Slytherin," she said, staring at the green cloth.

            Severus was rooting through her stores trying to find a healing potion. "Being nice? Not really."

            "The cloth, and there's cut salve in the bottom drawer." She enjoyed the view as he bent to the drawer.

            "Malfoy gift, monogrammed as well." He peeled the cloth off the cut, which had slowed bleeding. He dipped a clean corner of the cloth in the goo, and settled it over the cut, tying it to her hand. Hermione shivered as the salve cooled and healed. He closed the vial and placed it back in its place. He got to his feet as Hermione's eyes snapped to his face. "I'm sure you know, but let that sit for an hour or two."

            "How'd you get in here?"

            "Tap twice on the jar of frog spleens, bottom shelf next to the door. What are you making?" He asked looking to her cauldron.

            "Merlin's robe!" Hermione ran over to the potion and dumped in the Trigod scales. She held her breath and stirred three times. She let the breath out slowly as it came to the right shade of yellow. She noted the time on the clock and wandered back to Severus. "The antidote to next week's sixth year potion. The specific antidotes work faster than a universal." She shook her head. "Why are you here?"

            "Lucy needs a new batch of cologne, wondering if I could borrow a burner." She nodded and settled to watch her potion.

            She ran through the roll of all her classes in her head. No one named Lucy in Slytherin. "Lucius?"

            Severus nodded, "He swears by this stuff, has his eye on a girl."

            "Oh." Hermione said, feeling sorry for Ginny.

            Severus winced at her voice, keeping his eye on his work of prepping ingredients, "Ye don't fancy him do you?"

            "Hmm, course not, a friend does. Was just feeling bad for her, she was well good and decided on him."

            Severus blinked, a friend, he thought. "Aren't you friends with that sixth year Weasley?"

            She nodded, "She'll be pretty sad."

            Severus snorted, "One guess who Lucius has eyes for." He smirked.

            Hermione smiled, "Can I tell her?" She threw her best puppy eyes.

            He shrugged. "Lucius didn't tell me not to tell, so I'm not gonna tell you not to." He worked in silence for a minute.

            Hermione sat in a chair and observed him working. Hair was lank, but not greasy as it was older.  He had very steady hands, even at this age. She blinked, "When is your birthday?"

            Severus looked at her after throwing in a siren hair. "Why?"

            "Am I a friend?" She asked. She knew some of his older self had to be based on past, perhaps that reluctance to be close to people. She'd only known him for all of a week and a half.

            He thought for a minute, his magic jump to the future had smoothed a lot of things over. There were still pureblood ideals floating around, but with no grand master behind them there wasn't near as much opposition. He nodded, "Yes, I suppose so."

            "Well then, as a friend I should know." She didn't really have much or any logic to back that, but who cared.

            "Only if give yours first."

            "I think it was a week or two ago because of a time turner, but officially, 19 September."

            He raised and eyebrow at the time turner comment, but gave his as well. "14 November."

            She turned to his potion, "Why siren hair?"

            "Lucius likes to be irresistible, it gives off a magical pheromone of sorts. Very minor, he doesn't need much help. It makes people like him more, helps overcome him being a grand prat."

            She nodded, approving of the usage, and headed to her side of the work table, prepping ingredients that wouldn't need to be added for a while still. She looked to the clock, fifteen minutes yet. She settled and began to draw an ingredient rack on the other side of the room.

            She had never really fancied herself an artist, but she had never given it much of a chance, too much studying to be done to be doing art. It was sort of relaxing though, doing something that couldn't be graded. When the time came she mechanically added the ingredients and turned the heat down to simmer for fifteen minutes. She settled back to her paper as the rest of the room erupted on her paper.

            The heat in the room was becoming unbearable so she shucked her outer robe as Severus had done, as well as undoing her top two buttons. She had filled her paper edge to edge with the room, so she began drawing Severus.

            He was paying almost constant attention to the potion as it got more complex. She began sketching the area around him before filling him in the middle of the page. A graceful hand spread over the desk as he concentrated. She drew in his arms, one hovering over the cauldron as the other flowed from the hand on the desk up to his shoulder. Finishing his torso she started on his face. Sweat droplets gathered on his brow. She stopped drawing. One drop worked its way down the side of his face and cheek to follow his neck down into his collar. She swallowed, longing to follow its path with her hand.

            She gasped and pushed off the table, standing and knocking her chair backwards.

            "Hermione are you alright?" Severus got off his stool and started around the desk.

            She waved him off frantically, "Stay there. Is it tuned to females?" She waved to the potion. He nodded. "Apparently the effects are magnified during the brewing." His eyes widened. "If you don't mind I'll take my leave before I jump you." Her voice was saturated in desire for him. He moved swiftly out of her way. "Off in five minutes please. I'll come back later."

            Every instinct was telling her to turn around and jump the perfectly male specimen sitting in her work room. He needed to be hugged and cuddled and loved until he couldn't breath. She shook her head. I don't like him like that, her rational voice said. Yet, continued a primitive side that thoroughly believed that it was in all best interest to go snog Severus until her couldn't breath.

            She shoved out the door to her office peering through the door to close and ward her classroom door, she went to her rooms to go read a nice boring relaxing book.

%%%

            Severus watched with wide eyes as his teacher and friend made her way out of the room to her office. He hadn't brewed this in anyone's presence except Lucius and the first time, his male Potions Professor, in fourth year. He felt slightly guilty, but it probably wasn't a good idea to go apologize right now. Five minutes later he removed her cauldron from the flame, setting it on the desk and extinguishing the flame. Ten minutes after when his own potion was off and cooled, he pulled two flasks from his robes on the chair and filled them with the potion, returning it to his robes.

            He cleaned all he had used, returning everything to its place. Making his way to the classroom he stopped at her desk, pulling out a clean piece of parchment and borrowing a quill.

_Professor Hermione Granger,_

_Thank you for the use of your lab and various ingredients._

_I am deeply sorry for the potion brewing side effects. _

Severus Snape 

            He made his way to the door and pulled on the handle. After another yank and a few charms he held his breath and made his way to confront his teacher. He pushed the door into her office open again and walked to the door to her personal rooms. She hadn't warded this door. He slowly pushed open the door. She was reading a book on her couch. "Professor, you locked me in the classroom." Hermione looked up from her book. She was feeling better apparently, at least she wasn't inclined to tackle him any time soon. "Are you felling better?" She nodded. At her confirmation he made his way over to the couch.

            Step by step Hermione felt the urge coming back. She froze. He was three feet away and bent in front of her. "Thanks ever so for the lab usage." He closed the distance between them and kissed her.

            At the moment his lips set on hers, her brain locked up and a carnal part of her mind took over. Her eyes glazed. Hermione's hand snaked around his shoulder to pull him sideways, throwing him on the couch and followed the momentum to fall over him. Severus was surprised, not displeased though.

            Hermione's mouth fell on his fiercely. His mouth opened under hers willingly deepening her kiss. When Hermione's hand snaked under his shirt he pulled her hand away. Kissing a teacher sort of against their will is bad, Severus. He managed to get her off him enough to slip out under her.

            She made to follow him, but once he was a few meters off she shook her head clear and settled on the couch. "I guess the fumes will take some time to get out of my system then. Thank you for stopping me."

            "No prob' Prof." He was trying to get his hair to set normally. "I guess I'll see you in class. Let me out?" He waved in the direction of the door.

            She snorted, "You are not going out through my personal chambers, you'd end up in the middle of the fifth floor teachers wing. What would that look like?" Besides what it almost was? She continued in her head. "Head to the classroom, stay well away from me."

            He hurried out and she followed him. She lowered her wards and waved him out, "Thank you," he called back.

            For what, she thought. She warded her room and went to take a shower.

            She was undressing when she realized she had his handkerchief still tied on her hand. She threw on a robe and wandered to her sitting room. "Dobby!" she called.

            There was a loud crack as the elf in question apparated in front of her. "Yes Professor? What can Dobby be doing for you?"

            She smiled and held out the hanky. "Could you have this washed and returned by tomorrow?" She hated using the house elves, but she had gotten to know Dobby, the elf wasn't in best form unless serving others.

            Dobby bowed and took the bloody handkerchief. "Certainly he can do that Professor. Dobby will see to it hisself."

"Thank you, Dobby." Dobby bowed again and disapparated.

She returned to the bathroom and shed her robe. Hermione decided she was in a bath mood and settled on a scent, scattering crystals in the water as it filled quickly.

%%%

            Hermione woke the next morning and dressed and showered. She exited her chambers and settled on an oxford shirt and jeans. She dressed and exited to her study looking to her desk she found the green silk folded neatly.

She pulled out a piece of parchment and wrote a short note.

_Severus Snape,_

_Thank you for your help yesterday. For reasons that_

_may or may not still be obvious, I shall not be giving_

_this back in person._

_HG_

She sealed the handkerchief in with the letter with a blob of wax and a press from a stamp she had made to make herself feel more adult and official as a teacher. She exited her rooms through the dungeon and made her way to the owlery. She meandered through the corridor in front of the great hall. She paused a moment, the Earl of Denby was upside down, grappling for his toupee. Her brows furrowed. Wednesday was it?

%%%

Reviewer Responses:

Sarahamanda: Will try.

Fleria: thank you, both of those were written well after midnight.

Jen: I went and looked, but please tell me of anything specific you see.

Droxy: Happy with the kissing?

Slytherin Queen: My sis wants me to write a time thing with HGRL after I finish this.

Fuurama: whee, random acts of smooching

Artemisgirl: she was only gonna fix his memory if he wanted her to.

Elizabeth-Cat: Thanks for the review.

TiffanyK: All idea props go to my sister.

Jojo: yeah that was a big thing, I din know how Snape would act before he was all death eatery.

Hp-lover-fifi: will do.

GothPrincess: Heh, adolescent Snape is amusing.

Crazley: the idea was my sister's midnight ramblings.

Dark Lady Mara: tell me any specifics and I'll try to fix em. I try to write it well in the first place though.

Authoresses Notes: f you didn't notice, it was Wednesday two days in a row. It'll be explained next chapter I believe.  The Earl of Denby was sort of taken from the book Ella Enchanted, the movie was very, very good and you all should go see it.

Hapirus is me just making happy sound latin.


	7. Wednesdays

Chapter 7:

Authoress: Dodge-This

Based on Idea By: PookaSeraph

Disclaimer: All J.K. Idea came from PookaSeraph

Hermione moved away from the Earl of Denby with something tickling a corner of her brain. She shook it off and finished her walk to the owlry. In the past summer Hermione had bought a mail bird for herself, she was thinking on an owl when the regal falcon had caught her eye. She decided to name it Pygmaleon because she was a big fan of Ovid. She still had Crookshanks, he was at a wizard vet until a problem in his stomach was fixed.

She took the last step into the owlry, overwhelmed by the smell, but pressed on to where her bird was roosted away from the owls. "Hey, Pie, could you get this to Severus Snape with the morning mail?" Hermione stroked his breast feathers and gave him a treat before tying on the note. "Thanks."

Hermione walked her way to the teachers' wing and into her rooms to her office. She pulled out her class notes and looked to the day's plans. "Today I have, fourth and fifth years?"

Her eyebrows knit together as she thought again, I thought I already saw them. She shrugged. "Fourth years are covered, working on the poison. Fifth years are starting a standard Magic Recovery Serum. I guess I'll finish doing December's plans." She pulled out each year's text and added detail to her plans on what to cover for each year and unit.

She worked until ten to breakfast exiting through the dungeons for some early morning stair climbing exercise. She turned and warded the door behind her. Hermione walked her way to the nearest stairwell. She neared a corner, but was stopped half way by Severus coming around at the same time. Stopping just short of running into her, he looked up from his book and jumped back a few feet.

"Morning Professor." There was a cautious undertone to his voice.

"Severus," she acknowledged.

"All better then?" He waved a hand in her face. She grabbed it in annoyance.

"My vision was never a problem," She looked to his arm caught in her hand, "But yes, apparently so. Tad bit more compelled to assault and kiss you than usual, but bearable."

"Than usual?" He seemed amused.

She scowled, "Though my think before speaking reflex seems rather impaired at the moment, Great Hall's that way." She pointed to the stairs.

"Be up in a minute. I accidentally packed my bag for Thursday classes last night." He shrugged, "Common Room's that way."

She thought for a moment. "Do you mind if I stop by, Head of Slytherin and all, I should know where it is." He shoved the book in his bag and led the way.

"Don't seem very enthusiastic about that." He ushered her around a corner.

"Head of Slytherin? It's not that I mind, per say, but I've been trained by a Gryffindor society for the past six years. It's a little hard to then by shoved into a lead Slytherin role, when I still have Gryffindor friends in the school expecting me to exploit the situation and torture the Slytherins."

"Did I do that, as a teacher, I mean?" He led her around another corner.

She was startled, he hadn't mentioned anything since their conversation. "Yes, you took to Gryffindor bashing, gave points by the dozen to Slytherin."

"Pureblood," he said. She looked at him, then a portrait of the Blood Baron--before dying—opened to reveal the Slytherin Common Room.

"Predictable, aren't we?"

"Everyone's upstairs, you can come in, no one ever prided Slytherin on intelligence, only cunning." He helped her through the portrait. "Poke around, I'll go swap books." She nodded. He ran off to the spiral stairs on the left side of the room.

Hermione looked around in front of her, not a bad color scheme. All the furniture was green with silver lining, it fit. She saw the huge fireplace, marble of course. She turned around, her eyes widened and she covered her gaping mouth with a hand before rushing over to the wall to wall, floor to ceiling window looking underwater to the lake.

The water was a dark blue and there was a small colony of mermaids visible over some rocks. A tentacle snaked by, causing Hermione to jump back a foot.

"Huge isn't it. He casts finger puppets at night sometimes. Well as close to finger puppets he can get. Walk you to the Hall?" He asked, gallantly offering his arm with a small bow.

"Why thank you, and of course." She hooked her arm through his as he led the way to the door.

By the time they got to the doors to the Hall they had flitted through many subject to have their conversation come to quidditch, of all things. But as opposed to Harry and Ron's old rants about teams and strategy, he was actually talking about the pros and cons to the sport, with reasonable backing to his arguments.

Entering the Hall he came to a stop and began comically, "As much as it pains to do so, I must depart, fair lady." He kissed her briefly and walked to the Slytherin table. She smiled and shook her head to go sit. Dumbledore raised a brow and returned to his meal, smiling.

Once there she was greeted to a grinning Bill and Charlie. "So apparently I'm not the one Billy should have been worried about shagging the students, eh?" Charlie said. She shrugged and poured some coffee. Charlie blinked, "Eww, you're shagging Snape?"

Her eyes snapped open, "Merlin, no. I can't see how it matters though, I'm their age." She drank deeply and refilled her mug.

"Really?" he continued, "We had to sign an 'I shall not shag the students' agreement."

She shrugged again, "I passed my NEWTs and took a Potions Professor exam. I only signed something saying I was a teacher."

Bill decided it was time to join the conversation and slung an arm over her shoulders, "But there are such better pickings than Snape."

Hermione pulled off Bill's arm with a smile, only to find it soon replaced by Charlie's, "Now, now, if Herm is going to snog any Weasley, she would of course pick 'the sexy.'" He gestured to himself with his free arm.

Bill leaned over to stage whisper in Hermione's ear, "He's taken to referring to himself as that."

She laughed and daintily picked up Charlie's hand by one finger, "I'll have you know I shant be snogging the either of you if you keep this up."

Severus smirked as Hermione pulled each Weasley off her shoulder. He took a drink of water only to inhale it as an elbow found its way to his gut. He coughed until he regained his breath, he turned and glared at Lucius, "You have got to quit doing that! You weren't back last night until after I went to sleep." He held a flask to Lucius, who smirked.

"Apparently it wasn't required, I can catch a girl without the help of your fancy cologne." Severus shrugged and moved to put the flask back in his cloak, "Wait, wait, wait, I'll still take it though."

Severus held out the flask and his other hand palm up. Lucius took the flask and gave him a few coins. Lucius' muttering about con artists was interrupted by the Daily Prophet being deposited dangerously close to his porridge.

Seconds later a falcon landed in front of Severus. He took the letter and offered it some toast crust, brushing its breast feathers, before it flew off out a window.

He flipped the letter over, making out HG in the crest. He broke the seal and read the letter, returning the handkerchief to his pocket. Must've written it before this morning, he thought and stuffed it in a pocket.

Hermione groaned at an insistent tapping at her window. She tossed the covers from her body and left the warmth of her bed to let in the persistent owl. The regal owl flew in and stopped on her table, dropping a letter and leaving before she could do anything.

"Woke me up for that? Evil bird." She tried to brush a hand through her hair and failed miserably due to the knots. She picked up the letter and looked at the seal. Hogwarts own. She cracked the wax and read the letter.

_Professor Hermione Granger,_

_I'd be most delighted if you would join me for an_

_early morning tea, soon as you can._

_Albus Dumbledore_

"Rather cryptic isn't it?" She said to herself as she dropped clothes on the floor en rout to the bathroom. She showered and hopped out, drying her body before wrapping in her towel before focusing on the ball of hair on her head. With the help of her home brew conditioner the knots untangled as she passed through a brush.

She stared at it for a second, seeing if it would rally further rebellion before muttering an incantation to dry it. She twisted it into a knot high on her head before stuffing her wand through it to keep it up.

She exited the bathroom shucking her towel on the way to her wardrobe. Hmm, long sleeves. Aaaannd pants, pants are good. She put on said articles of clothing before making her way to the Headmaster's office. She was about to turn off the main hall when her eye caught on the portraits. Earl of Denby. Upside down…Wednesday? She felt like she had forgotten something as she approached the gargoyle, "Snickers."

Sometime over summer Dumbledore had found a muggle candy shop and since had been rather obsessive about the magical combination of chocolate, peanuts, and caramel goodness. She yawned and started up the still moving staircase. She walked forward and knocked on the door to his office.

"Come in, Miss Granger."

"Hello professor," she stifled a yawn, "Just wondering, is it supposed to be Wednesday?"

"We have some elves on the problem, they're dusting out the calendar room, a minor mishap, it will be better soon."

Authoresses Notes:

Lady Maura: Sorry if I got the name wrong, I'm doing this one just before posting. It isn't abandoned, its just that me and my sister went on vacation for a while then I had to rush and do all my summer home work, so here you go.

The Mad Madame: Yeah, I know it's a tad bit high on the cute scale, if any one has any plot ideas at all, even if they're totally idiotic, I'd be happy to incorporate.

Suzaku West: Thanks for stinking with me.

Silly bandit: sorry about the slow update.

Fuuruma: is the end more clear now?

CassandraTheEvil: I know the Slytherin line is very overused, but I couldn't resist the temptation, I do promise that it probably be used again. The Wednesday thing has hopefully been explained.

MissElvira: Ideas are always welcome, if I don't get back to you--I will try--just mail them to 

Momsangel: Glad you decided to read it.

Jean jelly bean: You should just know that you are what got me off my ash and writing this thing. Thank you very much.

Sarahamanda, blackwolfs900, Darkmoon3, Blue furry elf, Lily of the Shadow, crazley, Nighthawk47, Sheriff of Nottingham, Neo Queen Serenity: All of you thanks for reading, reviews are a great way to keep me writing quickly.


	8. More Wednesdays

Chapter 8:

Authoress: Dodge-This

Based on Idea By: PookaSeraph

Disclaimer: I own little to none of this, all credit goes to JK and WB.

dododo

She walked forward and knocked on the door to his office.

"Come in, Miss Granger."

"Hello professor," she stifled a yawn, "Just wondering, is it supposed to be Wednesday?"

"We have some elves on the problem, they're dusting out the calendar room, a minor mishap, it will be better soon."

Hermione blinked. "I'm sorry, could you repeat that?"

Dumbledore chuckled and offered a sherbert lemon to Hermione, at her silent refusal, he continued. "Down in the dungeons, actually, not far from your rooms, there is a calendar room. It would appear that the house elves have missed cleaning it for quite some time." He popped a sweet in his mouth. "Hogwarts does not take kindly to lax cleaning. Due to this we have had three Wednesdays this week."

Hermione stuttered, "But, how is that even physically possible?" She shook her head and snagged a sweet to calm herself before continuing. "I mean, just because the school says so?"

Dumbledore raised one white eyebrow. "Is it really that surprising? The school was built ages ago, many of its passages and powers have been long forgotten." He gently waved a hand, "It docent matter anyway. To make up for it we will be having three Thursdays, Fridays, and so on, until this is all sorted out. The Duke of Denby is actually who brought it to my attention. Was having a terrible time with his hair piece."

Hermione just nodded slowly, dazed.

Dumbledore settled into his chair. "Also, now that you have had some time to get used to your unexpected position, I just wanted to have a chat, make sure you were getting along well."

Hermione sat straighter, the comfort of something with a logical answer was setting her at ease. "The first few days were slightly scattered, scrambling to get lesson plans together. After that though, it all settled down. I'm not having much of any trouble with the students. I had expected at least some issues to come from the Slytherin seventh years."

Dumbledore nodded. I informed Draco of the situation. Because of his father's inclusion in the whole de-aging debacle, he knew much sooner than many others." He combed through his beard and sat back. "I asked him to help keep the Slytherins in line"

Hermione nodded, "That makes sense."

Dumbledore nodded, "And considering that Draco is 'in charge' of Slytherin now, much as his father was in his age, they are doing all they can to keep things settled." Fawkes yawned and awoke as the Sun peaked over the horizon. "Breakfast will be on soon. Unless there is anything you wish to discuss, I will leave you to it."

Hermione thought for a second. "You said before that my welcoming party was all right. I was considering making it possibly a monthly occasion, would that be all right?"

"As I said before, as long as students are in bed by curfew and there is no excessive rule breaking going on, it is perfectly all right."

She nodded, "And the Weasleys mentioned what they referred to as the 'I shall not shag the students' agreement..." she trailed off, hoping that Dumbledore would pick up without question.

"That was implemented many years ago, for obvious reasons. Due to the extenuating circumstances leading to your employment, I hardly think it would be fair to deprive you of social interaction that would be perfectly acceptable were you a student." He paused, and continued in a serious tone, "I do ask you to keep in mind that you are foremost their teacher, grade them fairly, and do not make me regret placing you in this position."

Hermione shook her head, "I simply wished to make sure...that is, that any, um, relationships..." she came to a halt trying to word her sentence well.

Dumbledore leaned back, eyes twinkling, "Yes, your relationship with Severus is perfectly alright. Beneficial even." He ignored the rising redness in her face as he continued. "With the looming threat of Voldemort removed, as well as the influence of James, Remus, Sirius...and Peter, Severus is becoming quite a different man," he finished, smiling.

Hermione got to her feet staring at the floor, "Well, thank you, Headmaster, I'll be getting to breakfast then."

"Please, call me Albus," he ushered her to the door.

dododo

Hermione took a slightly meandering route to the Great Hall, for time to think, as well as time to let her face lose the lovely rose colour. She arrived just as the food appeared on the table. She settled into her seat, and opted for tea over her usual coffee, she had already toasted her nerves talking to Albus today.

"You're looking particularly pensive 'Mione, what gives?" Queried Bill. Hermione flinched, that voice, that name, it brought Ron flooding back. She shook it off, sipping tea.

Waiting for the perfect timing, she spoke, "Apparently I _can_ shag the students." It took a moment before the desired effect set in. Charlie raggedly tried to dislodge some toast from his throat as Bill spilt scalding tea down his trousers.

"Hot! Hot!" Bill jumped to his feet and began to dance around, fanning his hands at the affected area. Felling guilty, Hermione spelled him cool and dry, before checking on Charlie's state.

dododo

Severus watched as Hermione entered the room. She was looking distracted and thoughtful as she took her regular chair. One of the Wesley prats said something, not important, or so he thought.

With his eyes tracked on her face, he caught the next words to roll off her tongue, "Apparently I can shag the students." He blinked and took a bite of toast, watching the mayhem her words caused unfold at the Head Table.

As Hermione took pity on Bill with Severus looking on, there was one thing going through his mind. 'Well that's interesting.'

Dumbledore strode in fashionably late. Though not looking particularly fashionable. Horrid mauve ensemble. Severus shook his head and turned his attention to his eggs before Dumbledore took center stage and made an announcement."

dododo

Dumbledore cleared his throat, and Hermione looked on from where she had just finished soothing Bill. "As you may or may not have noticed, the past few days have been Wednesday. This is not the natural order of things, though not particularly problematic. This little mix up has been addressed, and in order to make up for it, there will be a slight adjustment in the schedule." He stopped to clear his throat. "Because there were three Wednesdays this week, today is essentially Friday. So for today, you will follow a Wednesday schedule, tomorrow and the day after will be off, as for your weekend, to be followed by three days of Thursday schedule, so on and so forth, with appropriate breaks for weekends, until we are back to the natural order of things.

"In addition, next weekend will be our first Hogsmeade weekend, for third years and up." A cheer went up from the crowd of students. Dumbledore smiled. "And I expect that there will be Quidditch tryouts for this year's teams, so be prepared for that." Another loud cheer came up from the crowd. "So, on that note, enjoy your breakfast."

Bill and Charlie rounded in on Hermione, who cringed. Bill started in on her, "Firstly, that was mean," he said, gesturing to his lap. "Secondly, what do you mean you can shag the students?"

"Yeah!" Offered Charlie. Bill glared.

"Well," Hermione started, "I went to talk to the Headmaster this morning, he wanted to check up on how I was dealing. The subject of the 'don't shag the students' agreement came up, and he said the reason that I hadn't signed one was because he didn't want to deprive me of social interaction this year just because I'm a professor." She left out how he had essentially supported a relationship between her and Severus.

"Oh, if only..." Charlie said, staring over the crowd of students. Both Hermione and Bill slapped him on the head. "What?"

"You're old!" Hermione said. Charlie pretended to look wounded.

"Hermione! Dear!" Charlie threw an arm over her shoulder, "Why should age interfere with true love?"

She grabbed his arm and tossed it off, "Because it's illegal and immoral, that's why." She sipped her tea.

Charlie scowled, took his wounded pride, and poked at his bacon.

Bill grinned, "If it helps, he's probably only seventeen in terms of maturity." Hermione grinned.

"I heard that." Charlie said hautily to his bacon.

Hermione laughed and turned to jam a muffin. She was soon interrupted by a flutter of wings. She looked up to be greeted by Pie, holding a white carnation gently in his beak.

"What do you have for me?" She took the flower and smelled it, before glancing at both the flower and Pie for an accompanying note. There was none.

She glanced at both Bill and Charlie, who looked genuinely surprised, then looked down the Slytherin table, to one figure.

Severus was looking quite fixedly at his food. Hermione looked back to the flower, brought it up to her face, and again, sniffed the white carnation.

dododo

Authoresses Notes:

Jeeze! I give in, I'll update, just leave me alone! Just kidding, though it was the constant pestering for updates that has caused me to FINALLY write another chapter to this. Given that I haven't written for this story in over a year and quite a few months, please excuse a change in writing and me totally forgetting where I was going.

In addition, I totally lost the class schedules I had planned out for Hermione, Snape, and Ginny, and I am way too lazy to do it over, so I'm just going to be winging it, please accept that people just happen to wind up where they are whenever they are.

And, at long last, here are the REVIEW REPLYS!

wingsrookie: I do feel quite chastened, your review, in addition to a rather hostile review on another of my fics, in addition to the fact that it's summer and I'm quite bored, are what finally kickstarted me. Don't hold your breath on another update too soon though.

Yuki: Not totally abandoned, just kicked out on the street for a while. I'm glad you like my Snape, I use the fact that he skipped those 20 years to do whatever I wanted with his personality.

Makalani Astral: I would assume that Draco would have told Lucy what had happened, tho thanks for the reminder I'll cover that some time.

Maethoriell: Yeah, I hate Ron. Love Rupert, Hate Ron.

ANGRY: Hee, yeah I killed Ron.

Snape-ette: I've only actually seen the first one. I stand firm in my belief that the other 2 don't exist.

barghorse: I'm glad that you're diggin the different plot. As for the Hermione Ron pair. Just give it a good thinking. Hermione is the smarted kid around, and Ron is the most ignorant, not to mention hot tempered, they just arrant a good match in my opinion.

Grey Grim: I have book 3 Brit version, so I do have some exposure to the language, I try to keep up.

To all others, I thank you so much, it was the straws that broke the camel's back to get me to update this story.


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